Do I want to play Rumble?

Hi there!

There are plenty of guides out there for prospective Rumble players to choose from, each with their unique builds and playstyles. I have no intention of telling you a specific method of playing Rumble- I made this guide with a few things in mind:

- convincing players unfamiliar with Rumble to give him a try
- assisting current Rumble players with a more flexible, adaptive framework on which to build upon
- explain the mentality most suited for Rumble to play well.

So... do you want to play Rumble?

22 bans in Dreamhack?

An ultimate that, when properly used, can decimate the opposing team in a teamfight?

Rumble is a very skill-intensive champion, and is at his best when he lanes with a predetermined partner. Communication over voice-chat utilities with your lanemate such as Mumble, Ventrilo, Teamspeak, or even Skype can lead to well-executed plays.

As a solo queue champion, however, Rumble is not as impressive- you can hope to soft-pick Rumble in the champion select, and ask to lane with whoever has a stun / snare.

However, you should always find time to practice Rumble. His ultimate is a tough one to master, and playing against bots often does offer much opportunities for full-blown teamfights- try to get into as many teamfights as you can as Rumble, and focus on the proper timing and placement of The Equalizer.

What does Rumble do?

Rumble is classified in the League of Legends database as a mage, melee, and pusher.

Rumble is heavily dependent on AP and magic penetration to deal significant amounts of damage, and his Q ability, Flamespitter, can use AoE damage to quickly clear a minion wave, and when chasing a champion within range, can deal up to half of their life bar in damage, if they consistently stay within range of your Flamespitter's AoE.

His passive, Junkyard Titan, presents players with a new resource- Heat. Each of Rumble's abilities but his ultimate grant him twenty heat, but after 4 seconds of not using his abilities he will start losing heat at a rate of 5 every half second, and 2.5 seconds later at a rate of 10 every half second.

When Rumble exceeds fifty Heat, his Q, W, and E abilities are granted additional power, and when he reached the cap of one hundred, he is silenced for six seconds, and his melee abilities deal extra magic damage based on his level and ability power.

Regardless of your playstyle, the careful maintenance of Rumble within the range of 50-75 Heat is integral to any build. His abilities constantly have increased effect, and he is capable of overheating on short notice.

How should I play Rumble?

Rumble is at his best when laning with certain champions, even better when you are communicating with your lanemate, and your choice of laning partner is where your playstyle diverges. If your lanemate is a ranged carry such as Vayne, Rumble serves as a support pusher- that is, he weakens the creep wave with his Flamespitter, and allows his laning partner to easily last hit the minions to gain an overwhelming advantage in gold.

If you happen to lane with a partner that has crowd control abilities, such as Lux or Ryze, Rumble can take advantage of their snaring or stunning abilities to deal overwhelming amounts of damage with Flamespitter, and with proper play, maintaining Rumble's heat in the 50 to 75 range, you will be able to spam all of your abilities and easily earn first blood using Rumble's Junkyard Titan Overheat.

For example, I recently laned with a Morgana in a normal queue 5v5. By using Flamespitter on the minion waves, allowing her to last hit, as well as earning her two assists with the combination of Flamespitter, Dark Binding, and Junkyard Titan's Overheat, by level eight she had already acquired a Rabadon's Deathcap. Despite the game being a 3v5 and an eventual loss due to two of our summoners disconnecting, we were able to make the game last over an hour and defend through three Baron-enabled pushes, while maintaining our K/D/A at 21/9/14 and 16/14/13 respectively.

During mid-game, which for Rumble is after you destroy the tower in their lane, preferably around level six or seven, you should begin to push another lane, initiating the push by attempting to gank the most vulnerable enemy in that lane. Proper usage of The Equalizer as an initiation spell will lead to a sudden drop and continual DoT of the enemies' health, with both the slow from The Equalizer's AoE and hopefully the Bilgewater Cutlass you purchased with some gold earned from your early-game kills can easily catch an enemy off-guard.

When do I pick Rumble?

If you are solo-queuing, soft pick Rumble and wait for your opponents to select their champions. Ask if you can lane with a ranged caster with a decent crowd control ability to try for first blood, or, if you prefer, if you can lane with an AD carry that isn't taking mid to feed them last hits and hopefully lead to complete late-game dominance.

An ideal team composition should be an AP caster, AD carry, support, tank, and optional jungler/off-tank. If you are missing a tank, please don't take Rumble. Your zeal for playing a champion you enjoy is admirable, but poor team composition often leads to easy defeats and a disappointing match. While it is possible to build Rumble geared towards survivability, he cannot be played as a true tank, as the only crowd-control ability he has is Electro-Harpoon, which is nearly useless in teamfights and drawing aggro from your squishier champions. Rumble can fit the support, AP caster, and off-tank roles well, however, and if your team is missing any of those slots feel free to play Rumble.

Advanced players capable of maintaining a Heat gauge at 50-75 at all times can also try the AP DPS Rumble build, maximizing the advantage offered by Junkyard Titan's Overheat and dealing significantly more burst damage.

Proper Usage of Rumble's Abilities

Junkyard Titan, at first glance, can appear to be a passive that punishes Rumble for spamming abilities. I prefer to think of the Overheat silence as a secondary cooldown for Rumble's abilities, and another spell that can act as a nuke when your Flamespitter is on cooldown. As I have already stressed, micromanagement of your Heat gauge at 50-75 for a constant Danger Zone bonus is essential to play Rumble well.

Flamespitter is Rumble's characteristic ability. As it is manaless, you should be using Flamespitter as often as possible, and always in the Danger Zone. With the recent v1.0.0.121 patch, Flamespitter damage has been adjusted to 30/60/90/120/150 from 40/65/90/115/140, and the ability power ratio reduced to .45 from .5. However, since the ability power ratio was applicable to the damage per second, consider it more as a reduction of a 1.5 AP ratio to a 1.35 AP ratio on the full damage. That's not counting the Danger Zone bonus- with the additional 30%, you're looking at a 1.755 AP ratio on this ability. With skill you can time your Flamespitters to target multiple champions, and in those situations, your damage per second output is phenomenally high.

To be perfectly honest, I would consider this immensely overpowered were it not so easy to avoid this move. Like Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab, the greatest utility in Flamespitter is the fear instilled in the hearts of your enemies from the range of your ability- for example, rushing in with Flamespitter and forcing them back away from the creep wave, and using your presence to outzone them and deny them gold and experience.

Regardless of whom you are laning with, you should harass your opponents with Flamespitter constantly, and maintaining the 50-75 Heat range. Opponents will underestimate the damage output of Flamespitter as it is simple to move out of Flamespitter's AoE. When they make an offensive move targeting you or your carry, hold your ground and let them know the full damage output of Flamespitter. As they learn that your damage output is immense when they remain in the AoE, your activations of Flamespitter will keep them wary and moving towards them will cause them to retreat. As such, Rumble is an excellent zoner. Make sure to spam Flamespitter as often as possible as you head into your lane- with your cooldown reduction from masteries and runes, you can slowly bump your Heat gauge up to Danger Zone, which makes a huge difference early game.

As you are harassing champions early game with your Flamespitter, focusing both simultaneously will make them less prone to retaliation, particularly if you have backup from your lanemate. Likewise, if your lanemate is being harassed by two enemies, rushing towards them with Flamespitter is usually all it takes to drive them off.

Using the brush to sneak behind an enemy can help you get the full three seconds' worth of damage off of Flamespitter, as activating it from behind will give them a harder time escaping.

Another Flamespitter tactic is facing your opponent while not auto-attacking them and just using the AoE damage to harass them- remember, only autoattacking enemy champs will draw creep aggro. This will help maintain Rumble's survivability while still providing an adequate amount of harassment.

Scrap Shield is Rumble's defensive ability, primarily used to dodge skillshots and shrug off creep aggro. Harassing champions is best left for Rumble once he reaches level 2, and is able to put a point into Scrap Shield. As he dives toward an enemy champion, he can activate Scrap Shield for a sudden speed boost, as well as a shield to absorb the aggro from the minions you are receiving from targeting their champion. Melee harassment of champions during the early game can often lead to damaging yourself significantly from creep aggro, but notable exceptions are Sion's Death's Caress, Mordekaiser's Iron Man, and our own Rumble's Scrap Shield.

Unless you are playing a more tank-like version of Rumble, which I don't recommend, as the only CC he has is the slow off of his Electro-Harpoon, I'd be against leveling Scrap Shield before Electro-Harpoon. My reasoning behind this is that Scrap Shield is an immensely poor escaping ability. The burst of speed, while noticeable, lasts for less than a second, and the 30% increase hardly puts a gap between you and your enemy. The shield it puts up absorbs only a small amount of your enemy's damage and is really only suited to absorb minion aggro and spam at a moment's notice to boost your Heat gauge- once you use it for defending against champion attacks, you should be relying on AP to increase the shield's strength, as the half a second of movement speed increase is hardly going to close the gap between you and a fleeing champion- Electro-Harpoon is much better suited for such a task, even if the skill requisite to land a skillshot on a fleeing champion may require some practice.

Electro-Harpoon, therefore, should be ranked just as high as The Equalizer as the skill that "makes or breaks" an excellent Rumble. As a skillshot, it is difficult to master due to its short range, but it is a forgiving skillshot- it requires no mana, and can be used twice. As soon as you take a point in this skill, you should be using it to last-hit minions as often as possible. It far surpasses Scrap Shield as an escaping ability, as it applies a stacking slow to an enemy chasing you, and offers the versatility to slow two enemies chasing you, if such is the case. As a harassment ability it does poorly, as minions get in the way, but it can be used as an excellent gap-closer. If you are initiating a gank with The Equalizer on cooldown, you should be maintaining 50-75 Heat regardless of whether you are in combat- spamming Shield for the minuscule speed boost and spamming the rest just to keep your Heat gauge up- you Scrap Shield to quickly get within Electro-Harpoon range, taze them again if they aren't in melee range, at which point you should activate Flamespitter and Overheat simultaneously. If they survive this attack, a further slow courtesy of your Hextech Gunblade, Bilgewater Cutlass, or Exhaust should be more than enough to kill them, as you automatically spam all three of your abilities, achieving a Danger Zone Flamespitter immediately.

Once again, the AP ratio is deceptively high- you fire two harpoons, each with 50% AP scaling, and landing both gives you a 1:1 AP ratio. In Danger Zone, your Electro-Harpoon's true AP ratio is 1.3.

A 1.3 and 1.755 AP ratio on two regular abilities. Just sit there and think about it for a second.

NOTE: If you suspect that you are laning against a ranged champion with a strong presence, (for example, Caitlyn) then waiting until you see who you're laning against and taking Electro-Harpoon, if necessary, as your first skill to passively pick up some last hits instead of rushing into the fray and becoming disadvantaged. However, under usual circumstances, heading towards the lane and spamming Flamespitter to slowly increase your Heat gauge is the right way to go.

The Equalizer is Rumble's multitool- it can be used for numerous purposes. The closest analogue I can think of is a much more powerful version of Singed's Poison Trail, with the ability to place it in any direction at all. If you are being chased, fire it in a straight line behind you- if they are set on killing you the AoE damage will chip away at their health, and it is very possible for you to turn around, pop your shield, and finish them off. You can use it to finish off a fleeing champion that is already out of range of your Electric Harpoon, as if the damage isn't enough, the slow is capable of closing the gap and getting them back in range. In teamfights, Rumble's ultimate is often capable of targeting every enemy participating in the fight, and once you have done so rushing in with a Danger Zone Flamespitter will often nab you a double kill or more.

Your usage of The Equalizer should be to maximize the amount of time your enemies stay within the damaging AoE- making a straight line perpendicular to their route of escape is a poor move, as they can run straight over it without suffering ill effects- also if you place the missiles in front of them as opposed to on them, in the direction they are running, then you will miss out on the burst damage that The Equalizer offers on-hit, which is vital to to the teamfight as the nuke damage with instill a fleeing response in your opponents, preferably right over your Equalizer's burning trail.

Now, the Equalizer's AP ratios are 50% on the initial strike, and a continuous 20% for the five seconds spent in the AoE. Just as in Flamespitter's case, the true AP ratio for The Equalizer is more akin to 1.5, again, thoroughly overpowered, but fortunately simple enough to escape from. Now, The Equalizer is by no means a single-target ultimate. Quite the reverse, actually- you want to target as many champions upon activation as possible. This is what makes good Rumble players that get well-farmed early game so feared: the ability to rush into a teamfight from behind, fire The Equalizer, and snap up quadrakills like delicious candy.

NOTE: The Equalizer's range actually extends beyond the range displayed on the map, as only the starting point of the Equalizer must be in range- the actual missiles must initiate within range but are capable of traveling outwards.

Rune, Mastery, and Summoner Spell Choices

Flat magic penetration and health runes help Rumble's early game harassment immensely, and the scaling cooldown runes reduce The Equalizer's cooldown to nearly half a minute, along with your masteries and viable equipments, as late game you should be killing the golem as well as quaffing an Elixir of Brilliance. The speed quints help keep your opponent very close to your Flamespitter, getting maximum damage without necessitating tower diving, but it's possible to sacrifice a Quintessences of Swiftness in order to increase your early game survivability with the Quintessence of Fortitude, which I recommend for the Support build.

As for the masteries, it's reasonably simple. 9/21/0 is the way to go, best complementing Rumble's classification as a tanky caster. The nine points in Offense are clearly to get the 15% magic penetration offered by Archaic Knowledge, and the rest boosts Rumble's early laning presence. The point in Defensive Mastery helps Rumble ignore more creep aggro during the early harassment phase, and AD DPS Rumble puts Ardor to full use.

On all my builds of Rumble, I prefer Flash and Exhaust- Exhaust does an excellent job of keeping enemies in Flamespitter's AoE, and Flash is an excellent escape mechanism that can be used offensively. Ghost, too, is a good escape mechanism, but the versatility offered by Flash is too much to pass up. The skill curve for Flash takes some getting used to, though, so feel free to use Ghost if you feel uncomfortable Flashing. Try to get some practice in with it, though- it's an excellent summoner spell once you get used to it.

Useful Information for All Rumble Builds

NOTE: There are two offensive Rumble builds and one support build in the brief champion summaries on the top of this guide. They are, in this order, AP Caster rumble, AP DPS Rumble, and Support Rumble.

- The first time you recall after level six, purchase your Elixir of Brilliance. Right before you use The Equalizer, use your elixir. The cooldown reduction will have your ult prepared for any teamfight, and the additional ability power will help your attacks hit harder.

- If at any time you are facerolling them, Rabadon's Deathcap is an excellent item to choose. Rumble's AP ratios are 1.755 on a full Danger Zone Flamespitter, 1.3 landing both Danger Zone tazers, 0.52 on a Danger Zone Scrap Shield, and 1.5 on The Equalizer. And yes, you should always have your Heat gauge in Danger Zone.

- Regardless of whether you are in combat or not, spam your abilities to keep in the range of 50-75 Heat. As you walk to your lane at the beginning of the game, the cooldown reduction in your masteries and runes will allow you to slowly accumulate Heat by spamming Flamespitter as soon as it comes off cooldown. Keep the flames going at all times, and any preliminary skirmishes in the brush will be in your favor with the 30% damage bonus from Junkyard Titan's Danger Zone.

- Many of Rumble's items, such as Hextech Gunblade, Randuin's Omen, and Quicksilver Sash are items to be used in the midst of battle. Using your items in the middle of a fight can be tricky, and a helpful solution to this is binding your Item #1 to a more convenient location.

Great Lane Partners for Rumble

Any immobilizing crowd control is an excellent complement to Rumble- of course, it is better to have an AP and AD champ in a lane as that would make it more difficult to counter by purchasing armor or magic resist.

How do I play offensively with an AP Caster Rumble?

This build of Rumble is the simplest to get accustomed to, and if you are starting out on Rumble, practicing using this build is the way to go. The suggested runes, masteries, and purchases are in the first Offensive Rumble build.

As an AP caster Rumble, you want to maximize your Flamespitter's DoT. By the time you purchase your Sorcerer's Shoes you should be able to deal enough burst damage to successfully gank. Another option is to purchase Ionian Boots of Lucidity. The cooldown reduction, which is hard to come by on a manaless caster, will help you have The Equalizer up for every teamfight. You'll want to lane with a player with snaring or stunning skills in order to get your full 3 seconds worth of damage on Flamespitter. Taric is an excellent laning partner thanks to his buffs, heals, and stun, as well as Morgana, as her Dark Binding and Tormented Soil in tandem with your Flamespitter is enough to kill an overextended opponent from half HP.

When you are laning with a caster partner, hopefully your opponents will have overextended and got caught in a situation where Flamespitter removed a significant chunk of their HP. With your sudden advantage in laning presence, use the brush as much as possible. If your enemies see you enter the brush, they will back away in fear and be denied experience and gold. If they don't notice, then you will be in a better position to maximize damage output with Flamespitter when they get stunned- particularly advantageous when you lane with Taric, as his ranged stun will have a longer duration.

Item Choices:

Your item options should begin with Doran's Shield, in order to recover health from harassment, following into a Hextech Revolver and Sorcerer's Shoes to maintain laning presence while keeping a full health bar. Hopefully, with the help of your lanemate, you should be able to get two or three kills before their tower falls. Once their turret is destroyed, the midgame phase begins. You are free to gank other lanes from bushes, using The Equalizer as a finisher, preferably to target two or more champions, or as an initiator if you are facing champions that have pushed too far to flee back to their turret- the initial damage and the damage over time will cause a fleeing mentality in the champions you target, leaving you able to slow them with your Electro-Harpoon and close in for the kill without fear of retaliation.

Late game, if your team has a significant amount of casters, an Abyssal Mask will provide a significant buff to your teamfights, in which you should be participating 90% of the time. If there are only two casters on your team, including yourself, a Void Staff will serve you better. If you find yourself being focused by an overwhelming majority of crowd control, a Quicksilver Sash is the appropriate solution. Morello's Evil Tome is another valid option, despite the unnecessary mana regen, as it will cap your CDR and have your Level 3 Equalizer have a 36 second cooldown.

How do I support with Rumble?

This Rumble build is not particularly difficult, but it lacks the fulfillment of racking up a fat, juicy killstreak. This build is intended to feed your AD carry during the laning phase by lowering the entire creep wave's health using Flamespitter, and hopefully sit back and watch the late game fireworks as the carry you babysat tears through a turret in three seconds. Be warned- this build requires a good carry, skilled with last-hitting to do properly. If you're outfarming mid, then you know you're doing a good job. Any less than that, and you should tell your lanemate to step it up or segue into a more offensive build.

As a support Rumble, you will be laning with your carry, making sure to tell them before the game begins. You will be feeding them easy last hits with your Flamespitter, playing more defensively and focusing less on harassment. As the game progresses, you can begin to build Rumble into an off-tank build with respectable damage output.

As you focus on improving your crowd-control abilities with Rylai's Crystal Scepter or Randuin's Omen, you should be participating in as many teamfights as possible, dealing damage to as many enemies as possible with The Equalizer in the middle of the teamfight (never as an initiation technique) and using your more durable build to rush towards the enemy team's carry with a Danger Zone Flamespitter active. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is more suited for chasing down opponents with Flamespitter, and is prioritized in the more offensive Rumble build, but in this case Randuin's Omen takes priority due to its low cooldown and your participation in nearly every teamfight. The health and AP bonus from Rylai's Crystal Scepter is still impressive, though, and it should be your next stop after getting Randuin's Omen if nothing on their team is targeting you specifically- the additional slow stacked on The Equalizer's slow can turn the tides of a surprise assault into a deathtrap for the initiators.

Item Choices:

Ideally, you would like to begin with a Doran's Shield, which will provide Rumble with immense staying power. As you are not focusing on harassment much, your health bar should never dip below 50% unless the team begins to focus you- which is a terrible idea, as focusing the carry you are laning with has a far greater impact, and if they focus the carry, you can easily drive them out of range with Flamespitter.

As you return to base for the first time, you are presented with a variety of options of items to purchase. If you are laning against a particularly frustrating AD DPS, prioritize the acquisition of Chain Vest. Similarly, if you are having trouble with a caster, Negatron Cloak is an excellent choice- either of the two can be built into a powerful late-game item for Rumble, giving you the options of Randuin's Omen, Thornmail, Abyssal Mask, and Quicksilver Sash. If your enemies aren't fazing you at all, and you recall with full health just because you have plenty of gold to spend, getting a Blasting Wand will do nicely.

As for your choice in footwear, Mercury's Treads is always a good choice, although if the opposing DPS is giving you significant trouble, buying Ninja Tabi is not out of the question. If, however, you are dominating the lane and your enemies have taken the defensive posture, Ionian Boots of Lucidity will help you press your advantage- The Equalizer's naturally short cooldown should be exploited. If you have gold to spare, Ruby Crystal to be put towards Randuin's Omen is your best choice. If possible, pick up a Sight Ward or two, and place one in the middle of the river next to your lane to be better prepared for roamers. Any spare wards should go in the bushes near your river, and then in the bushes on the side of mid. Don't go out of your way to place wards- only do so if you are passing by, with the exception of the first ward position.

Once you destroy a tower in your lane, or your opponents start grouping in lanes, the mid-game has begun, and you should be assisting your team as often as possible. Hopefully, you will have built Warden's Mail at this point, and as The Equalizer will have you snapping up assist gold, if not kills, in team fights, your Randuin's Omen should be up in no time.

Late game, if you find yourself being focused with your opponents' Exhausts and other forms of crowd control, you can turn that Negatron Cloak into a Quicksilver Sash. Likewise, if you are being hassled by their squishy DPS, Thornmail is a lovely option- on top of both of Randuin's Omen's abilities, they will be hard-pressed to kill you, even as an extremely fed Master Yi.

How do I play offensively with an AP DPS Rumble?

This method of playing Rumble, located in the second Offensive Rumble build, is the most skill-intensive of the three. This build adds an additional factor to Rumble's already frantic micromanagement of the heat gauge- maintaining a full eight stacks of Guinsoo's Rageblade.

With Flamespitter's AP ratio, that's an additional 41.85 damage per second, or a full 125.55 additional damage, without being in the Danger Zone. In the Danger Zone, you can fix those numbers to say an additional 54.405 damage per second, or a full 163.215 additional damage. With The Equalizer's AP ratios, that's an additional initial 46.5 damage, followed by 18.6 more damage per second for five seconds.

Now, the attack speed buff gets fully utilized once you are skilled enough to maintain your Heat gauge in the Danger Zone and activate Junkyard Titan's Overheat whenever you please, allowing Rumble to optimally use every aspect of Guinsoo's Rageblade.

You think this item's good on Jax? Hardly. With the ability to Overheat at a moment's notice, your increased attack speed along with the AP buff offered by the Rageblade will shred your opponent's HP before he can even get out of Flamespitter range.

Balancing Rageblade stacks and a Danger Zone Heat gauge is an art. Heat decays after four seconds of not using abilities, and Rageblade stacks decay after five seconds. The ability to monitor multiple things at once is paramount for this build, but if you can master this skill, it will come in handy for any game of LoL you play, though more specifically the improvement of Rumble.

The only lategame option I would suggest for AP DPS Rumble that is different from the main build would be Malady. Improving your DPS to maximize Junkyard Titan's Overheat is wonderful in addition to the AP and MR Reduction. Hextech Gunblade and Rylai's Crystal Scepter are still excellent options for Rumble, though the Gunblade loses a bit of its appeal as the laning sustainability provided by Hextech Revolver is not present, which makes harassment a more precise art that needs fine-tuning and practice.

The simplest way of maintaining a full 8 stacks of Rageblade is to use your ability once the rotating timer on the effect square hits about 6 o'clock, that should keep your Heat gauge steady at whatever it is you have it at, as well a full stack of Rageblade effects.

Once again, boosting your cooldown reduction to maximize The Equalizer's frequency is a great move. A lower cooldown on your abilities also means less micromanagement on your part to keep max stacks on Guinsoo's Rageblade- the convenience is so much, I've been trying Ionian Boots of Lucidity over Sorcerer's Shoes and liking it a lot- I'll change the build if I happen to prefer it after more testing.

Morello's Evil Tome is still a solid choice, but as you are capable of utilizing Rumble's DPS offensively, Nashor's Tooth is also a great option. With the 10% CDR from Elixir of Brilliance, the 3% from your masteries, the 8.6% from your runes, either item will be enough to maximize your CDR. If there are no casters on your team that require the Crest of the Ancient Golem, then you can pick that up and devote your item slots to a more focused item without extraneous abilities.

Closing Remarks

I will keep track of any modification and edits regarding Rumble in this section, but since this is my first post, there is nothing to put here yet!

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I hope you all enjoy playing Rumble- he is a fun champion to play. His initial playstyle is simple to master, but the finer details of Heat gauge management and proper harassment technique take a bit longer to get used to. Please let me know if this guide helped your playing or not!